Vehicles such as heavy-duty trucks are well known in the art. Such heavy-duty trucks may take various forms and in one example may be in the form of a refuse hauling truck. The typical refuse hauling truck has a chassis supporting an operator cab and a body section that receives refuse from dumpsters, totes or garbage receptacles being emptied into the body section, such as via articulating members associated with the body section. The operator cab of the refuse truck may be designed to include a right-side drive configuration wherein an operator can drive the refuse truck from the right or curb side of the operator cab in a standing configuration. This right-side drive configuration is often used when the operator proceeds along a residential route to empty refuse into the truck. As such, the operator is frequently driving to a location on the route, stopping the truck and exiting the truck to empty refuse from the dumpsters, totes or garbage receptacles into the truck. The operator returns to the operator cab and drives a short distance to the next location and repeats the process. Because of the repetitive start/stop nature in emptying refuse into the truck along the route, there exists a chance where the operator may exit the operator cab before the refuse truck has come to a complete stop, leaving a moving truck without an operator. This may result in injury or damage to persons or property.
Thus, while certain refuse hauling trucks and other vehicles according to existing designs provide a number of advantageous features, they nevertheless have certain limitations. The present invention seeks to overcome certain of these limitations and other drawbacks of the prior art, and to provide new features not heretofore available.